Currently, users enjoying media programs often desire to control those media programs during their presentation, such as to pause, mute, or stop the presentation. A user, for example, may wish to stop a television show while he or she gets up from watching the television show to get a snack. To do so, conventional controls, such as a remote control, may require that the user find the remote control, find a stop button on the remote control, press the button, and, once he or she returns with the snack, again find the remote control, find the play button, and press the play button.
A user may instead be listening to a music program and a friend listening with the user may start talking to the user during the music program. In such a case, the user may wish to pause, reduce the volume, or mute the music program until the discussion is done. Conventional methods permit the user to pause, reduce the volume, or mute the program through intentional, active control by the user, such as through a volume dial on a stereo amplifier or through a remote control. Controlling the music program through these methods, however, may be slow, thereby causing the user to miss some of what the friend said, or otherwise not provide a good user experience.
Further still, the user may have a young son or daughter that unexpectedly steps into the room where there is playing a song or movie that the user does not wish the son or daughter to hear or see. In such a case, the user may attempt to stop the media program, though this attempt at control may be undesirably slow.
These are but a few examples of ways in which conventional methods for controlling media programs may fail to provide a good user experience.